What Price Glory

This patriotic war film is the bees knees for slap stick, witty comedy. The mixture of wussy brown nosing privates and annoyed sarcastic generals provides a hilarious bitter sweet feeling that can put a smile on your face. Not to mention the constant friendly rivalry between the comedic loud mouthed Captain Flagg (Cagney being Cagney), and the irritated Sergeant Quirt played by Dailey, for the cute and innocent French waitress Charmaine. This movie not only made a great world war 1 film, but proved Cagney was still his energetic, pound for pound, hard nosed self even at 53 years old. The only downside to the movie was the poorly portrayed dramatic war speeches and the failed attempts at giving a life lesson. But all around 8/10

Excellent performances by James Cagney and Dan Dailey with good support from William Demarest and a super young Robert Wagner. Interesting contrast of characters from the battle tested professionals like Cagney and Dailey to the fresh out of basic training and high school Wagner. Also brings out the issue of battle fatigue or "shell-shocked" and how it sometimes affects soldiers directly and indirectly by its effect on the morale of their buddies. The interaction with the townspeople is also well done. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this movie every time I have seen it. It is like vintage wine and seems to get better with age. The first time I saw this movie was in l954 and I learned to sing the song "Its a long way to Tipperary" from watching it one time.

I know little about the play on which this was based, nor have I seen the previous silent film version of that play. So my gripes aren't about how faithful this is or isn't. I just think this movie stunk to high heaven and I can't believe James Cagney, let alone the great John Ford, had anything to do with it. This is a very lame, tired war comedy with a paunchy old Jimmy Cagney and Dan Dailey lusting after a younger woman (Corinne Calvet) while World War I is going on. There are some attempts at staying true to its serious backdrop but that just makes matters worse all jumbled together with the sophomoric comedy. One good thing I'll say about it is that Corinne Calvet is easy on the eyes. Avoid this unless you are a Ford or Cagney completist. Or, for whatever reason, you are a big fan of Dan Dailey. Written by the parents of Nora Ephron!

Oh how I hated this movie! Instead of learning anything about WW1, it was very silly and superficial. This movie took WW1 and re-created it so it looks more like a combination of the war AND a Popeye cartoon! The paper thin and stooopid plot is really annoying at times, as the characters alternate between fighting in the war and getting drunk and beating each other up for laughs. Wow--that sound like a lot of fun! All that were missing were Olive Oyl and spinach! Frankly, this made the entire movie look like it was written by a couple of 8th graders who really had no idea what the first world war was. Both actors deserved more and USUALLY John Ford was able to deftly blend action with light comedy--but not this time.